"How come you guys have black kids?"

Hubby and I plus the three babies were shopping at Kohls on Saturday.  Ava and Owen were at my brother's and his wife's house having a fun kids night.  We walked into the store, me holding Truitt in his humongous baby carrier which I swear weighs about 40 pounds, and Chris had Kembia and Moyz in his arms.

We didn't get 50 feet into the store when we passed a black man and his two adorable kids.  I knew something was coming because he kept looking at us with a bewildered expression on his face.  And then he said "How come you guys have black kids?"  My whole body tensed up for some type of horrible exchange between us that I have heard other families have had.  I simply responded "because we adopted from Africa".

To which I kid you not, he replied verbatim, "Oh, I was wondering what kind of messed up genetics was going on there."  This man's first thought was that they were our BIOLOGICAL children.  Now, I don't know quite how I should feel about this exchange.  Happy that he thought somehow they were our bio kids, or disturbed because he thought that somehow two absolute, bright, neon-white people could have black kids like Kembia and Moyz.  For real?

He happened to be from Africa himself, and based on his accent, most likely from a British colonized country, we didn't ask, but we wanted to.  I have to admit when we got a decent amount of space away, I laughed.  I was thankful that he wasn't upset that we had adopted kids not our color.  I also laughed because my friend (you remember the one that I stalked through Target?) shared a similar story about how a checkout lady at Walmart thought that it was a recessive gene that led to their 5 black kids.

I have to admit that now that both Kembia and Moyz endlessly say "mom" over and over again like a broken record, it has made being out in public with them a little easier.  People hear them saying Mom and know they are my kids now, unlike the one lady who wanted to give all my "friends" stickers one day.  And I don't get countless "are they your kids?" or "wow, you're brave bringing your day care here" anymore, which I love.  It doesn't really bother me too much, but gets tiring to answer 5-10 people any given time going through a store.  Sometimes, I just want to get my groceries without having any explanations.

Maybe I should say yes, I gave birth to them one day, and see what people do!